Survival
by Joy Booth
Summary: A trip to Skye's mother's grave doesn't go as planned...


She wondered if it was fate. Some grand plan that said she would die for the mistakes of her parents. That in some weird final destination way, she had spent her whole life fighting the inevitable. She should have known better than to have thought she could have a normal life. Her mother had never brought her anything but pain, and yet when she finally found the place where she was buried, she couldn't help but make a pilgrimage. Ward in his infinite wisdom, had insisted on coming along for safety reasons.

Which is how they ended up here, in a cell, infected with Extremis, about to go out in a fiery explosion. She could feel it burning through her like a hot stake. Any minute now one of they was going to lose it and that would be the end. She could see Ward working so hard to keep his cool, but she knew there was no hope. She would destroy him just like she had everything else good in her life. At least this time she wouldn't have to live with her mistake. Neither of them would.

"Are you crying?" he asked when he saw the way her shoulders were shaking.

"Wouldn't that be stupid," she replied from her corner of the cell, refusing to turn around.

The last thing she wanted to see right now was his pity. He should be pitying himself for having believed in her in the first place. If she had just let him keep his distance like he had wanted, he would be safe back on the Bus, but no, Skye had to try to be friends.

"It wouldn't be stupid," he said, moving to sit in front of her.

"Yeah, because this is a Disney movie where crying suddenly fixing everything and my pathetic tears are going to heal you or summon a fairy god mother who can get us the hell out of here. Oh wait, nope, this is reality and we're just waiting to die," she joked sarcastically.

"Calm down, rook, the team has to know we're missing, we just have to stay calm until they get here," Ward said in his team leader voice.

"No one is coming Ward, open your eyes, we are literally ticking time bombs, and to make matters worse they cut half the fuse by putting us together. Everyone knows we can't be in a room for ten minutes without fighting about something," she pointed out the flaws in his plan.

"That's not true," he argued.

She raised an eyebrow, "Are we literally going to fight about how much we fight?"

Ward huffed and moved away again, "I guess not."

Skye tried to keep herself calm, but she felt like she was about to crawl out of her skin. The cell was dank and her hands itched for something to do. She felt like she could run twenty miles. She grabbed the bars of their cell to see if she could bend them, but a violent shock threw her toward the opposite wall. She hit her head with a sicken thud and was up again anger boiling in her veins.

"Skye, come on, sit down play a game with me?" Ward urged when he saw the extremis reacting in her skin.

"What exactly are we going to play, Agent Ward? Should we play tic-tac-toe with the dirt on the floor?" she growled.

"I spy with my little eye something grey?" he offered.

"This whole damn room," she growled only getting more agitated as she looked around their environment.

"Look, I am trying here," he started to growl back, only to stop, trying to regain control.

Skye looked at him and began to wonder if she wouldn't be the one to go first, as she noticed for the first time that he too was having trouble fighting the effect of the drug.

"Not eye spy, how about concentration?" she asked, taking over the caretaker role with ease.

"I don't know that one," he admitted, seeming to calm at her offer.

"It's easy sit down, criss-cross applesauce," Ward looked at her as if she had turned blue, but when she sat on the floor, he did too, "then just clap the beat and keep up," she started. "This is the game, of concentration, no repeats, or hesitation, I'll go first, Grant goes second, the category is, animals. Dog"

"So just say an animal?" he asked.

"Yep, but no repeats or hesitation,"

"Cat"

"Armadillo"

"Capuchin monkey"

They went through every animal they could think of and then switched to movies, and songs and weapons, but each felt calmer so they kept going. Time passed and they kept their cool, right up until their captors got impatient and tossed a smoke bomb into the mix. It wasn't dangerous, but the adrenaline rush that accompanied it was. Skye reached blindly for Ward, moving slowly until they were sat back to back. The contact keeping them grounded. Neither wanting to inhale whatever was billowing around them, they just prayed that the smoke would dissipate quickly.

"You good?" Ward asked when he felt it was safe to talk.

"All good, you?"

"Clear, what do we do now though?"

"Meditate?" Skye offered after a long thoughtful pause.

"That's not really my thing," Ward admitted sheepishly.

"Not really my thing either, but I talked to May after the incident with the staff," Skye said hoping not to drag up to many bad memories. "I asked her how she was able to handle it without freaking out, and she had that meditating helps. I know it's not ideal, but…"

"No, you're right, we have to do something to buy more time," Ward was still confident that someone would rescue them, not because he was worth rescuing, but because this couldn't be the end.

"Are you sleep?" Skye asked, when she got bored.

"No, I was meditating," he growled, tension evident in his body still pressed to her back.

"It's not working for me," Skye admitted.

"Any other bright ideas?" he grumbled.

"Yeah, why don't you go try to bust us out of here," she replied snidely.

"How would me getting zapped help?"

"It would make me feel better,"

"Bite me,"

"Great come back, did you get it from your time machine?"

"You know what?" Grant roared, as he jumped to his feet. Skye quickly turned around, eyeing Ward who was once again pacing the cell.

"Chicken butt," she joked trying to bring him back.

"What?" he asked, clearly confused.

"You said, 'you know what?' and I said, 'chicken butt'. Now you ask 'do you know why?' and I say 'chicken thigh," she smiled at the dumbest joke known to man.

Grant laughed, "And you thought my comeback was lame."

Instead of starting another fight, Skye sat against the wall bouncing her legs to hide that fact that they were now shaking with excess energy. Her control was slipping, there wasn't much time left. Skye thought about her mother's grave. The reason they were in this mess. It was not what she had expected, tucked in the middle on a bunch of other stones, just a name and two dates. She had gotten more from the file Coulson had given her. It was all for nothing. She rubbed her arms to stretch the overly tight muscles.

"Are you cold?" Ward asked in disbelief. He didn't understand how she could be shivering when he felt like he was on fire.

"I'm fine," Skye insisted.

"You don't seem fine," Ward commented.

"Maybe I am just sick of being trapped in this hell hole with you," she replied, her voice low and dangerous.

Ward didn't say anything else for a long time. After a while he started pacing again the red serum flashing in his skin like a traffic light. When he looked back at Skye, she was slumped in a ball in the corner.

"Skye?" he said slowing making his way to her, "Skye, say something, you can't give up on me now."

"I want to go to pizza planet," Skye finally said when he gave her a gentle shake.

"I know you're hungry but now is not the time," he replied, continuing to try and rouse her.

"I hate you, why can't I go home?" she cried pitifully, her eyes still squeezed shut. Ward pulled one eye open. Her pupil was completely blow. That collision with the wall earlier, must have caused a concussion.

"It's okay, we are going home," Ward assured her.

"No, I want my mother, I want to go back home with my mother, she said she would be right back,"

Ward didn't know what to say. Was this like a nightmare? He knew that you weren't supposed to wake someone who was sleepwalking, but should he try to get her to see reason? He didn't want to make the wrong move, so instead he just sat down next to her, stroking her hair and waiting for something to happen,what he was waiting on, he didn't know.

The next thing Ward was actively aware of was a loud sound down the hall. He was afraid that they were sending in something worse than a smoke bomb, so he used his body to try to shield Skye. Fate was on their side though, as May was through the door moment later.

"Can you walk?" she asked searching the room and keeping an eye on the hall.

"I'm all good, but Skye has a concussion and we have both been infected with extremis," he informed the senior agent.

"Did you get that?" May asked someone through the comms, "Coulson says get the girl and we will deal with the rest later."

Without any further delay, Ward scooped Skye up in his arms, following May to the extraction point. Back on the plane Simmons took scans and did her best to treat Skye's head injury. After a shot of the same thing they had shot Mike with, Skye's vitals leveled, but she was still unconscious. Ward was debriefed before being administered the regulation serum. After his dose he fought hard to stay awake, but in the end feel asleep on the floor in the lab were Simmons was still caring for Skye.

Hours later Skye woke up with a killer headache. She was trying to get electrodes off of herself when she nearly stepped off the table onto Ward. She carefully maneuvered around him, searching the lab for some aspirin.

"Skye, it's so lovely to see you awake, but you should be resting," Jemma said rushing into the lab. She had gone to get some rest, when her remote monitors had gone haywire.

"I just wanted some aspirin and to go get in bed," she said, before she remembered why her head hurt so badly. "Jemma, we've been infected, you have to get out of here, it's only a matter of time before we blow."

"It's fine, dear, we gave you the regulation serum. You and Ward are going to be fine," Jemma promised.

Skye blinked several times trying to process this information. She was going to live. She was going to be fine.

"What about the guys that grabbed us?" she asked still not believing that they had gotten out relatively unscathed.

"Here take this for the pain," Simmons said, handing her a pill. "The SHIELD sweeper team was right behind May. They picked up the men that attacked you, but as usually Raina got away."

"I am really starting to hate that witch," Skye mumbled as she took her medication.

"Join the club," Simmons said seriously. "Now, let's get you to bed, you need your rest."

"What about Ward?" Skye asked.

"What about him?" the man in question asked from the floor.

"I didn't want you sleeping on the floor, why are you down there anyway?"

Ward blushed.

"Agent Ward believes that his mere presence will magically make people better," Simmons answered, rolling her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I have a head injury," Skye joked, confused by Jemma's answer. "What were you saying?"

"He wouldn't leave as long as you were unconscious," Simmons explained.

Skye locked eyes with Grant in silent appreciation of his gesture, before she started to get a little dizzy. In a flash Ward was at her side. Though she insisted she was fine, Ward insisted on making sure she got to her room. Slowly making their way up the stairs, Skye was thankful for an arm to lean on, not that she would have admitted it. They made it to her room without any trouble. Skye was almost asleep before her head hit the pillow, but when Grant lingered at the door as Simmons returned to her bunk, Skye spoke.

"I guess I owe you another life debt," she teased groggily.

"I think we can call it even," Ward replied, relieved that they had even survived.

"I'm glad it was you," she said quietly.

"Because you like to see me struggle," he joked.

"Of course not," she said sadly, "because I don't think I could have made it through that with anyone else."

"Me neither," Grant admitted, before saying goodnight and making his way to his own bunk.


End file.
